@joelsartoreofficial
Joel SartoreMany years ago, when I was first starting to work on the Photo Ark, I decided that using a paper background for great apes would be a good idea. It wasn’t. I drove from my home in Lincoln to the @sunsetzoomhk. Their troop of chimpanzees was in their huge outdoor enclosure as my son and I readied an off exhibit space for the photo shoot. We’d brought a roll of heavy, white paper, then cut it to fit perfectly, including the floor. Plenty of heavy duct tape held everything in place, and after about an hour, we were all set with the entire room a picture-perfect white. What could possibly go wrong? Plenty, it turned out. The chimps took one look at the set up from a nearby stall, but didn’t go in the room. Instead, one big male stuck one arm in and pulled the entire set down; in one swift grab, he yanked all the paper out through a side door. The entire demolition didn’t even take ten seconds. I could hear the chimps vocalizing as they began to tear up the paper into little tiny bits. They had a lot of fun. Me, not so much. We packed up the lights and began the long drive back home, empty handed. Today we use paint on the walls and floor to do all our great ape portraits. At least that way we know we’ll get our pictures...at least until the chimps learn how to peel paint. #chimps #primate #ape #PhotoArk
On the profile · Jul 16, 2023